


Four Times Mark Left And One Time He Stayed

by Franzi (Ducrion)



Category: Take That
Genre: F/M, M/M, five times fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-07
Updated: 2011-02-07
Packaged: 2017-10-15 11:44:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/160503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ducrion/pseuds/Franzi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took Mark 18 years to find someone to stay with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four Times Mark Left And One Time He Stayed

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks heaps to Dalehead and Temve for the beta!
> 
> Disclaimer: Never happened, not real! This is not connected in any way to the real Mark Owen or Robbie Williams

1992

"I'm sorry, I can't stay." Mark knew that she couldn't hear him. She was still fast asleep, looking cute, all bundled up in the sheets, smiling in her sleep.

He brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and kissed that pale, soft skin of her cheek just once more, breathing in her scent one last time. He didn't even know her name, it didn't hadn't even occurred to him to ask. And if she'd told him her name – he didn't remember. That's what it was like for him on this tour. His - their - first real, proper tour. No weird night clubs this time.

It'd be a different town, a different girl tomorrow.

Sometimes he wished he could stay. Stay in bed the next morning and pick up where they left the night before. The girl in his hotel room certainly was pretty. Gorgeous. Slender build, long red hair and skin as pale as milk.

But he didn't even know her name. Didn't know where she was from. Didn't know her age.

As he kissed her, she stirred in her sleep and made a small sound, but she didn't wake up. Which probably was for the better.

He snagged his bag and, with one last look over his shoulder, left the hotel room to meet up with the band. Back on the bus. On to another town. More of the same.

~~*~~*~~

1993

 _I'm sorry, I can't stay._

The note was hastily scribbled on a piece of paper Mark found on the desk of the hotel room.

He couldn't wake him. Wouldn't.

The night before had been great - full of drunk fun. Full of very drunk fun that resulted in gazes, gropes. Mutual jerking off. Just things drunk friends do. It meant nothing. It was perfectly normal, just some fooling around.

But if it meant nothing, why was he leaving now, at five in the morning, careful not to wake his friend? Careful to not even as much as look at him.

Mark looked into the mirror instead, running one hand over his face. His tired, hungover face, with the rings underneath his eyes telling last night's story.

A story of a night his body remembered more than his mind did. His body still remembered everything. Every touch. Every look burning on his skin.

His mind refused to remember. Refused to acknowledge that anything had happened at all. Refused to acknowledge that it might've been more than drunk fun.

He refused to look at his sleeping friend. He refused a last kiss, a last, longing look.

Because if he did as much as look at Rob right now, last night would mean something after all. And that was scarier than anything else.

~~*~~*~~

1994

"I'm sorry, I can't stay with you."

Mark had practiced his speech several times in the past few days. Now that he actually faced Lisa, that was all he managed to say. No reasoning, no well-articulated apology. This was all he was able to say, his stomach in knots, feeling like he was about to throw up his lunch.

He adored Lisa, was hungry for her body, loved spending time with her, enjoyed the conversations they had. She had never given him any reason to leave her.

But it wasn't her fault he was leaving her now. Not her fault. Not when it was him who had been sleeping around with another person. Slowly falling in love with someone else. A fact she might've suspected long before he had even realised it was happening.

Which would be an explanation for her reaction just now.

It wasn't like anything he imagined. He'd thought she'd be angry. Maybe sad. Asking for a second chance. Or lashing out at him. Her reaction was nothing like that. Instead, she simply put her jacket back on and left. No questions, no yelling, no accusations, no looking back, no last kiss. Just silence. Which was worse than anything else she could've done.

It was him who punched the door as soon as she closed it on him. Releasing his own emotions, that mix of despair and relief. Welcoming the pain in his fist. His face was hot, tears welling up in his eyes as the knot in his stomach finally resolved, relieving all the tension in his body, leaving him calm and numb at the same time.

He quietly picked up his phone to dial a familiar number. To call the one he loved. The reason why he had just left his girl.

Rob.

~~*~~*~~

1995

"I can't stay with you, I'm sorry." Mark shook his head, his decision made. And Rob's phone call in the middle of the night was not going to change it. "I have to stay with the boys. While you work out what you want from life, work out... your problems." Drugs. Alcohol. He didn't have to say it, Rob knew what he meant. Problems that had only got worse these past months.

"We would be better than ever together! If you just stay, I promise you wouldn't regret it. Just you and I, doing our own thing. No Gary, no Nigel to tell us what to fucking do every minute of the bloody day."

While Mark couldn't smell Rob's breath, he could tell from the way he talked that he had had too much to drink again just before he called. Or worse. "No," he interrupted him. "No, Rob. I can't come with you. You have to work this out on your own."

It wasn't an easy decision. He'd spent the past three weeks thinking about nothing else. Split up with the band or split up with his lover. A lover who had become more distant lately. A relationship that had turned from loving to almost constant fighting. Fighting over Rob's behaviour, fighting over Mark insisting that he get professional help. Fighting over the band. And fighting over, well, nothing, really. Small things.

It was painful to admit this. To himself. To anyone. Painful to admit that their relationship had turned from love to this so quickly. And they were both to blame for it.

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Scary silence. Mark tried to break it. "I'm sorry, Rob. I wish you good luck with your project. I'll stay in touch, yeah?"

"No need to. I don't want you to stay in touch. Don't want you. I don't need you."

Even though Mark knew - desperately hoped - that this was the alcohol talking, and not his friend, those last four words were the most painful he ever heard. Swearing he could've dealt with. Even silence. But not those four words.

When he went back to sleep, all he could think of, all he could hear in his head over and over again was Rob's voice.

 _I don't need you._

~~*~~*~~

2010

Mark woke up early in the morning. The sun had just begun to rise. He woke up with a smile on his face, still in an embrace with his lover. The one he'd spent the past few nights with. The only one he wanted to spend all the remaining nights in his life with. Rob.

It had been a turbulent time, those past years. Fifteen years since that most painful of phone calls. Fifteen years in which they had kept in contact, had casual encounters. Some passionate nights that had never felt quite right. Nights that had only been fuelled by lust, never love.

Fifteen years in which they'd tried to mend what was left of their friendship. They hadn't managed to go back to where they started. Rekindle that fire.

Not until now.

Mark didn't know what had changed, exactly. Maybe they had. Maybe they had finally grown up. Maybe they were finally able to forgive each other, forget all those things that had been said fifteen years ago. It didn't matter.

All that mattered was that now he knew he would stay. Whatever was going to happen, Mark would stay with Rob. He leaned in to kiss him. His forehead, his nose... his lips. Parting them with his tongue until he felt Rob stir awake.

"Do you think we could just stay here in bed for the rest of the day?" he mumbled into the kiss. "Just stay."

The answer he received was quite clear as Rob just tightened his embrace to let him feel his beginning erection, whispering in a husky voice, "Stay."

~~*~~*~~


End file.
